26 Paid Search / PPC Stats And Facts You Should Know

What started as ugly banner ads on search engines, evolved into consumer and marketer-friendly tools to help discover and uncover products and services.

Not only do consumers get to find the businesses and answers they seek, but marketers get a unique set of tools to introduce their businesses to the world in a way that is driven by hard, cold, and impossible to disagree with data.

Whereas businesses and marketing agencies of the past didn’t know which of their marketing efforts were a waste, these days you can see how a color of a button or the placement of a word can change how much revenue your company generates.

This is all thanks to a little something called Pay Per Click Advertising, or PPC.

26 Most Important Pay Per Click Statistics

Below are 26 Paid Search statistics that you should be aware of, with a short blurb as to what it means for you.

1. The average cost per click in Google Ads across all industries is $2.69 for search and $0.63 for display.

And this is the average Cost Per Click (CPC) grouped by industry:

Industry

Average CPC (Search)

Average CPC (GDN)

Advocacy

$1.43

$0.62

Auto

$2.46

$0.58

B2B

$3.33

$0.79

Consumer Services

$6.40

$0.81

Dating & Personals

$2.78

$1.49

E-Commerce

$1.16

$0.45

Education

$2.40

$0.47

Employment Services

$2.04

$0.78

Finance & Insurance

$3.44

$0.86

Health & Medical

$2.62

$0.63

Home Goods

$2.94

$0.60

Industrial Services

$2.56

$0.54

Legal

$6.75

$0.72

Real Estate

$2.37

$0.75

Technology

$3.80

$0.51

Travel & Hospitality

$1.53

$0.44

2. 40% of brands planned to increase their PPC budget for 2020

Some may look at this statistic and think that this means things are about to get more competitive, and they wouldn’t be wrong.

However, the better way to look at this is that PPC advertising is simply working!

The only reason businesses would plan on increasing their budget is because they are learning that this is having a positive impact on their revenue and brand awareness.

3. 43% of new customers make their first purchase because they saw the product in a YouTube ad.

I added this as number 3 because when most people think of PPC advertising, they think of Google.

The truth is, there are other popular channels for you to explore, chief among them being Youtube.

Video is on the rise and this stat is an eye-opener as to the power advertising on Youtube can have.

4. Google Ads and Facebook PPC Ads are the two largest advertisers on the Internet. Google currently holds 37.2% of the digital advertising market, whereas Facebook holds 19.6%.

While Google is still the top dog in advertising, Facebook has grabbed a huge market share over the past few years.

That is because they give marketers a tremendous amount of leverage by allowing them to target their audience by demographics, interests, employment and much more.

I can see Facebook growing larger over the next few years. If you aren’t taking advantage of it yet, start now.

5. 65% of buyer-intent keywords are paid clicks.

While most data out there will tell you that organic search is the way to go, it can often be generalized.

This statistic is a perfect example of that. Turns out when it comes to buyers keywords, which are the ones we’re all after, PPC ads get a portion of the attention.

This is great news for E-commerce companies.

6. 46% of the total clicks go to the top three paid advertising positions.

Some people like to set up “set it and forget it” campaigns. This statistic is the perfect reason to not do that.

Optimizing your campaign will get you more coverage on average, which means more clicks and better results.

7. Advertising accounts for about 97% of Google’s total revenue.

Why is this important?

Because it’s a sure sign that not only is PPC here to stay and is a good long term strategy, but that the tools available to you will only improve over time and Google’s search decisions will continue to cater to PPC ads.

8. Businesses typically make $3 for every $1.60 spent on Google Ads.

Anybody getting close to 50% returns on their marketing campaigns is usually a happy camper.

While this is only the average, it can show potential for you to make a decent margin on your advertising, especially if you’re in the services industry that has limited overhead.

9. In AdWords, the overall average conversion rates are 3.75% for search and 0.77% for display.

While display advertising is all the rage because it is generally cheaper, the conversion tends to be lower than “intent-based” searches.

This is good to bear in mind when deciding on how to split your PPC budget.

10. Approximately 36% of mobile searches are local.

Most people thought that the rise of search engines and digital marketing would hurt local businesses when it has actually done the opposite.

Especially the rise in mobile use that comes with location tracking and automatic search matching, local businesses have a new life breathed into them.

11. 86% of all American consumers regularly utilize the World Wide Web to search for local businesses that match their needs.

That’s right, even the boomers.

If you’re a local business, it is absolutely necessary for you to take advantage of every aspect of local marketing.

Waiting for people to drive by and see you is no longer a marketing strategy.

Most of those people will be looking down at their phone for Google maps.

12. 70% of mobile searchers will directly call a business via Google Search.

As long as I’ve been in digital marketing, this surprised even me. Mobile ad extensions are super effective, but a 70% average is an eye-opener.

If you’re running ads its a must you run them on mobile, and if you’re running on mobile, its a must to include the call extension.

13. 46% of Americans pick up and unlock their smartphones to check for notifications upon waking up each and every morning.

People’s attachment to their phones is growing year over year.

Every marketing effort that you partake in has to be mobile-friendly.

Whether it is your ad, your website, or your videos, make it mobile-friendly because there is a huge chance that where it will be seen.

14. 2018 to 2019, the total number of devices around the world with ad blockers rose from 142 million to upwards of 615 million.

This statistic can scare some people but in reality its good news. Because it’s telling us that the number of devices used is growing, and the way people consumer ads is changing.